Still think COVID is a hoax? Visit a hospital

By now, everyone should be convinced COVID-19 is not a hoax. But for those still wondering, still questioning, still doubting, talk to an overworked ER doctor.

For those still wondering, still questioning, still doubting, talk to an overworked ER doctor.

Talk to an intensive care nurse, or better yet, go see for yourself, if they’ll let you in. Get a first-hand look at one of our hospitals facing a staffing crisis because health care workers are contracting COVID-19, in quarantine or are just plain exhausted.

We all want the best of care if, God forbid, we have a heart attack, suffer a stroke or end up in the emergency room after a car accident. We all want the best of care for our children who, God forbid, have an asthma attack, fall down and break a leg or have an appendix burst.

We don’t want to hear there’s no doctor available, no empty bed and the nurses are all tied up tending to ventilators.

We would still have our personal freedom, though. We would be able to freely drive from hospital to hospital, hoping one of them has an empty bed and a doctor not too busy keeping people with COVID-19 alive.

Some of us still complain about not being able to live a “normal” life. Some still complain about not being able to spend the night in a bar or laugh with friends over dinner. Some of us went home to eat turkey with elderly relatives for Thanksgiving, despite the warnings.

And some believe they should have the right to do all of this without a mask and spread COVID-19 wherever they darn well please.

Just ask State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has led rallies protesting efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. He is now among the thousands of Pennsylvanians who have tested positive for the virus, after meeting with the President of the United States and attending that famous election hearing in Gettysburg – without a mask.

Because of such attitudes, hospitals in our area are on the brink of a staffing crisis, as PennLive’s David Wenner is reporting.

Because of such attitudes, more than 3,000 people in the United States are dying of COVID-19 complications each day. And because people like Mastriano refuse to bear the burden of wearing a simple mask or staying away from a crowd of people, morgues and hospitals across the country are overflowing.

Here are the facts [as of Dec. 4]:

• More than 11,000 people in Pennsylvania have died of COVID-19

• Pennsylvania is breaking its record of infections — more than 11,000 people each day

• More than 5,000 people are now in hospitals with COVID-19 in Pennsylvania

• Nearly half of the hospitals in the Harrisburg-Lancaster-York region expect staffing shortages within a week

• At least one hospital chain, WellSpan, is reducing elective procedures and temporarily closing some operating rooms to manage the COVID crisis

If Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert is right, the worst is yet to come, especially if we don’t accept the truth and get over this selfish need to put our personal pleasure first.

COVID-19 is real. It will continue to kill thousands if we don’t buckle down, stay out of crowds and wear masks in public until a safe vaccine is available to everyone.

Anyone who advises otherwise is just plain wrong. Listening to those still rejecting science, medicine and truth is not only dangerous, it is deadly. Talk to an ER doctor.

More than 11,000 people in Pennsylvania have died of COVID-19 and Pennsylvania is breaking its record of infections — more than 11,000 people each day.